OT- Captain jumps overboard, SEALs shoot pirates (Apr 12) (US 3, Pirates 0)

[Matt]

[Robatoy]

[evodawg]

Go SEALS

[Charlie Self]

[HeyBub]

you can't win this conflict on the sea, you have to destroy the nest that's on land.

They've got one survivor. He can be encouraged to divulge their home port which, about a half-hour later, should cease to exist. That's what we did in

1802 and 1907. That's what we should do now.

Roosevelt: "The American people want Pedicaris alive or Raisuli dead...The fate of the nation will be decided by the American people in November, and the fate of Morocco will be decided tomorrow by me. And now, if you don't mind, I'd just like to be alone with my bear!"

[Swingman]

Hostis humani generis

[Stuart]

They're probably spread out along the coast in all sorts of little hidden bays.

I believe that during WWII we had some special ships, just looked like ordinary merchant ships but with concealed armaments. Should deploy a few of those, wait for the pirates to turn up and blow the bastards out of the water - no questions asked.

[Morris Dovey]

Which nest - the one near Mudug or the ones at the other end of that location's (satellite) internet connection?

Hmm - and how many hostages will that kill?

CERN has satellite views available at

I imagine the DOD birds provide considerably more detail.

Perhaps it might be more productive to follow the internet traffic and the money - and then quietly convert the money-movers and the weapons-dealers to chum.

2c

[Tom Veatch]

Yes, indeed!!!

There was a tongue-in-cheek opinion among Marines at the time of my tour that the worst thing you could do is give a Swabbie a rifle and run him up on the beach. I'm very happy to see a counter example to that opinion. Well done, Navy!!!

Saw one news blurb that almost apologetically mentioned that pirates were killed in the rescue. My reaction was "Who gives a royal shit that they were killed."

Tom Veatch Wichita, KS USA

[Lew Hodgett]

Firearms leave a trail.

Give me a vessel equipped as a fire boat.

Wash the decks CLEAN with 1,500 GMM from an 8" nozzle.

About like washing bug splatter from the windshield of your car.

Ship would be clean with nothing to trace except sea water and you're providing something for the sharks to investigate.

Lew

[Morris Dovey]

Agreed.

Old ex-Army paratrooper: "And the guy only had to jump overboard twice before the swabbies had it figured out!" ;-)

Probably neither you nor I - but their families might...

[evodawg]

Good that they kept one alive. Now all they need is Jack Bauer to extract some info out of him. Oh I forgot Obama's words "we don't torture".. Shucks!!!

[John]

What happened to all those guys from Blackwater? Arene't a lot of them unemployed these days? How much could it cost to put a few of them on a merchant ship, with armament of their choice?

Reply-to address is real John

[Martin H. Eastburn]

Killing bankers won't stop the piracy. You have to cut the head off of the snake and wipe the nest out.

The area has been a cess pool for years. The war lords killed off the government and then couldn't decide who or how to run a government.

I say start them over.

Mart> HeyBub wrote:

[notbob]

aquia plankto terrapostualus!

nb

[Morris Dovey]

Then it'd be a good idea to identify the "head of the snake". Somehow I doubt that it's the grunts out on the water.

There have been over $60 million dollars in ransoms paid by shipping companies. Those funds have been converted to spendable form by /someone/ and again, I doubt it's the grunts out on the water.

I don't care if it's the Russian mafia or an exec at Credit Suisse - whoever it is is (to my way of thinking, YMMV) is an accomplice to the piracies, and should be held to account for their participation.

There is apparently some reason to believe that the pirate operations have been funded at least in part by wealthy parties - and should that be proven true, I think that their complete assets should be taken to compensate first the shipping companies for the ransoms and losses due to having their vessels out of service, secondly the hostage crew members for their time in captivity, and thirdly any assets left over should be used under UN supervision to improve conditions in Somalia - perhaps starting with repatriation and restoration of some semblance of normal (pre-genocide) life in the Darfur region.

That's a tall order and much easier said than done. Are you ready to spend the next ten years of /your/ life "starting them over"? Are you prepared to require your offspring to pay for you to make that effort?

If not, then it might be helpful if you'd explain more clearly what you meant, who's to do that job, and how it's going to be funded.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Right Morris, but if the families are that concerned, they should talk them into another line of work. They could sell Amway instead.

They made the choice to play with guns.

[Doug Miller]

Improving conditions in Somalia, while a laudable goal, has nothing to do with the genocide in Darfur, which is some 3000km, and two international borders, to the west in Sudan.

[Morris Dovey]

Yessir... and Mary Kay Cosmetics, and Tupperware, and Avon, and... encyclopedias. Especially encyclopedias. Burial plots, too.

Yeah, although I wonder how many of 'em had wanted to be pirates when they grew up...

[evodawg]

Hey they started chewing that Weed which makes them higher then kites when just infants. Most haven't a clue what they're doing. Guess you could say they're the "Walking Dead".. So someone needs to stop them from walking..Specially if they're walking with a rifle.